


Gathered in Her Name

by lanalucy



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Boundaries, Camping, Canonical Character Death, Caretaking, Challenge Response, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Cunnilingus, Drunk Sex, F/F, F/M, Gift Fic, Grief/Mourning, Implied Sexual Content, Kobol, Life-Affirming Sex, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, Non-Canonical Character Death, Older Woman/Younger Man, Sex Positive, Tent Sex, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-13 18:40:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4532979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalucy/pseuds/lanalucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not completely plotless smut in honor of singerdiva01_sk's birthday. See below for her request.</p><p>HAPPY BIRTHDAY!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gathered in Her Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Singerdiva01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singerdiva01/gifts).



> "Actually. I saw this photo and started thinking of Kara/Karl/Laura tarp smut on Kobol but I can't see how it would work with Laura's distrust of Sharon, Karl's distrust of Laura and Kara's complicated feelings about all of that. But if anyone could make it work I think you probably could so...I'll just drop that little unrequested prompt here. *walks away whistling* singerdiva01_sk"
> 
> Makes reference to Enhancement (http://archiveofourown.org/works/942702), in which Karl's mother is an amateur herbalist and bottles "enhanced" ambrosia every year. Karl took Kara home once, and the resultant Ambrosia-fuelled Kara/Helo sexcapades were a source of great amusement to his mother.
> 
> Much thanks to newnumbertwo and laura_mayfair for beta eyes and little fixes.

 

They were all dragging ass.

Their first bit of good luck was finding the right trail - completely by accident. Elosha was poring over her scrolls, muttering, and Kara caught a word or two at the very moment the gravemarkers crossed her vision. Sheer synchronicity. Or the luck of the gods. Maybe.

Elated, she turned to share the good news, and Elosha took a step too close. The cylons had been here first, and they'd seeded the ground with mines. The gods had exacted their toll in blood, just as the scrolls had predicted.

Taking care of what was left of Elosha was a bit much, even for Kara, but she would never have insisted the President help - Roslin wasn't even capable at the moment of following simple instructions.

But between Kara and Lee and Helo, they managed a shallow grave, and Kara remembered a few words of prayer to consecrate the priest's final resting place.

Afterward, Laura Roslin was nearly catatonic with grief, not just that she'd lost a priest she'd loved, but the priest and her encyclopedic knowledge of the scrolls had been their best source of information in their search for the Tomb of Athena.

Kara guided Roslin along with a finger to the elbow here, a hand up a rough climb there, and both Lee and Helo pitched in periodically. Tom Zarek and his cronies, of course, were practically useless.

She shrugged as she went back to setting up a shelter for the President. She and Lee had one of their silent conversations where they divvied up the watch, and Lee nodded and headed for the perimeter, sidearm strapped and rifle at the ready.

That left mostly Zarek's few men to set up the rest of camp and build the fire. Kara didn't trust that Meier guy with a steel-reinforced concrete wall between them. He was planning something, and Kara didn't know what it was, but it wouldn't be good. Nonetheless, she had to trust that Lee would keep his eyes open and take care of himself. She had higher priorities tonight.

She finished the shelter for the President, allowing her as much privacy as possible. One way or the other, the rest of them were used to at least partial nudity on a constant basis, but Laura Roslin was still the President of the Twelve Frakking Colonies of Kobol, and she deserved as close to four walls and a roof as Kara could provide. She would grieve longer than one night, but this first night, it wasn't anybody's business if President Roslin fell apart like a child. Plus, Kara kind of had a plan.

Kara got the President settled and strode off, checking for a blanket or two, tossing her own pack over her shoulder before going back to the President's tent. Kara wasn't the girliest girl to ever girl, but she was the only other one here now, and no way was Laura Roslin sleeping alone on a planet occupied by scheming criminals and who knew what variety of cylons.

She dropped her pack right outside the opening, glancing around to find Helo. He was holding up, but he hadn't been the same since Sha...the cylon had been blown apart by centurions just as they were readying for take-off.

She walked over and nudged him. "Hey. I'm gonna hit the head. Keep an eye on the President for me?"

Helo nodded without saying anything.

Kara found a relatively private spot to empty her bladder and went back to camp. Helo was right where she'd left him, watching the tarp-shelter as if it would walk away if he weren't looking.

Kara walked up and put her hand around his arm, leaning in. He turned his head.

"This has been a shit day, Helo."

"No argument here."

"Doesn't have to be a shit night."

Helo raised a brow.

"Please tell me you found those bottles of your momma's hooch in my cabinet, and that you brought them with you when we bugged outta that hellhole." She forced a leer onto her face.

Helo wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "You don't wanna hold out for a better occasion? This is the last of Mom's special brew, you know."

"Well....unless we steal a raptor and go back to Aquaria and raid your mom's brew storage."

Helo laughed, barely. "If you think my mother is not still alive and kicking ass on Aquaria, you don't remember her very well. And if I went back, she'd never let me leave again. You, either."

"I know. Whatever survivors are on Aquaria, your mom's got them whipped into shape, I'm positive."

"The ambrosia, though, Kara?"

"You and me'll maybe be okay, Helo, but the President? She's going to fall apart unless we get her through the worst of her grief somehow. And a bottle of your mom's finest will definitely do the trick." She rocked back and forth on her feet. "You don't have to be there, if you can't think about it right now. I can do this alone."

Helo lowered his chin and looked at her. It wasn't often someone could intimidate her, and Helo hardly ever did it, but when he looked at her that way, she wanted to squirm and run.

She opted for false bravado. "What? I can totally handle your mom's ambrosia." She shrugged. "Besides, it's not like it'd be the first time I frakked a girl." Helo didn't need to know that was a complete and total fabrication. And if the President was wasted on Agathon Ambrosia, she wouldn't care about Kara's skill level anyway. She'd figure out a way to make the President come as many times as humanly possible, and by morning, Roslin would be able to put her mask back into place when she needed it.

And that was the point: get the President to fall apart without all the crying and snot and the other ugly stuff that usually accompanied deep grief, with everybody outside the tent none the wiser.

Kara put together some MREs and found serviceable cups. The MREs didn't have to taste good. In fact, the crappier the better, because the better the ambrosia tasted in comparison, the faster the ambrosia would be drunk.

She ducked her head through an opening between tarps and Laura Roslin was exactly where she'd left her: sitting crosslegged hugging what was left of Elosha's scrolls. So far, so good.

She pulled back and craned her neck for Helo, who was walking her way with what she hoped was a bottle of ambrosia in that bedroll.

"You got it?" she whispered.

"Yeah. Plus an extra bedroll. Frakkin' ground's rocky as hell right here."

"Good thinking." Kara took a deep breath, looked down at the very unappetizing MREs, and said, "Okay. Showtime."

She toed off her shoes right outside the tarp, and moved into the tent without knowing whether Helo would follow or not. She'd do what she needed to do either way. But as she moved around to sit next to the President, facing outward, Helo was pulling the two edges together, and sank gracefully to the ground.

Thank. the. gods. She really could have done it without him, but she was pretty certain Roslin would respond much better in the beginning to a male rather than a female.

Kara set the plate down and touched Laura on the arm. "Madame President?" She waited a moment, then squeezed Roslin's wrist until she knew it hurt a little.

Laura Roslin shook herself, looking around the enclosed space like a bewildered child, then said, "Kara? Lieutenant Thrace?"

"Brought you some food, sir."

Roslin shook her head. "Oh, I really don't think -"

Kara didn't let her finish. "It's pretty disgusting, even by my standards, but it's food, and we all need it. The worst of the climb is tomorrow, and we can't have you passing out halfway up the mountain because you couldn't force some food down." She paused and gave Laura a secretive smile. "Besides, Helo brought us a little something to help make it go down easier." She gestured to Helo, who brought out the bottle with a little flourish and poured a couple of fingers into each cup.

She picked hers up, swirling it lightly under her nose. Yeah. This was one of Mama Agathon's better batches.

To get it out of the way, she held her cup out in between them all, and said, "To Elosha. May her voyage to Elysium be swift."

A tear overflowed the corner of Roslin's eye, but she cleared her throat and held out her cup, too. "Elosha." Her voice barely shook.

Helo echoed them, and they all lifted their cups. Kara watched out of the corner of her eye, and at first Roslin just took a tiny sip. Then she held the cup out in front of her and gave it a stern glare, sniffed at it, and swallowed the rest in one shot.

Kara and Helo downed theirs, and Helo refilled everyone. Kara held out the plate with what was passing for food, and made the President take the first bit. "Eat a bite. Take a sip. I promise, you'll hardly taste this crap."

The lines at the corners of Roslin's eyes crinkled, though she didn't quite smile, but she did as Kara suggested then passed the plate to Helo, who followed suit. They shared the plate until all that was left was some kind of gravy, and Helo made a show of licking the plate clean, then tossing down more ambrosia.

Kara asked, "You feelin' a little better now, Madame President?" Personally, she was already beginning to feel the effects of Mama Agathon's enhanced ambrosia. She'd bet a month's worth of orgasms the President would step over the line any minute.

Roslin waved her wrist and insisted, "How about we stick to first names for now. Madame President takes so long to say." She giggled, just barely, then nodded, as if her pronouncement was now written into Colonial Law. "So I'm Laura, and you're Kara, and you're Helo? What kind of mother names her child Helo?"

Helo gave her his best disarming only-Agathon-boy-alive grin. "Actually, she named me Karl. But during Basic, Kara started calling me Helo and it kinda stuck. Even she forgets I have a first name most of the time."

Laura raised her brows. "Why does it sound like there's a story there?" She looked from one to the other, and saw something in Kara's face. "What's the story behind Helo?"

Kara put some tease into her voice. "You sure you want to know? I've never even told Helo why I call him that."

Laura's cheeks flushed, and she took a good long look at Helo, then nodded.

In answer, Kara picked up the plate Karl had cleaned, held it up as a sort of barrier, and leaned in closer. "Do you remember the old helicopters, the ones with the rotors on top?"

Laura nodded.

Kara leaned even closer and took a significant look at the plate. "Well, Laura, I started calling him Helo, because when he gets that tongue of his going, there's no chance a girl will walk away unsatisfied. He can tease it out, make it take longer, but he can get the job done in under two minutes." She shrugged. "It's a compliment, but it drives him crazy not knowing. He has no idea how often my little nickname got him laid.

Laura sat back, the merest hint of a smile gracing her lips. "I see. And he can still...?" She waved her hand without finishing the sentence.

Kara chortled. "He's only gotten better with age." She held up the mostly empty bottle. "Like a fine ambrosia."

"Hmm. I think perhaps, in the interests of scientific exploration, I will need a personal demonstration."

The words flowed off Laura Roslin's tongue like honey, and Kara gave herself a mental high-five. Agathon Ambrosia never failed. Then she looked at Helo. "Well, Helo, the President asked us for a demonstration. You gonna refuse a direct order from your Commander in Chief?" She winked at him.

Helo gave an easy laugh. "You know me, Kara. Mama raised me to follow orders, especially when it's women giving them."

Kara bit her lip and looked at Laura. "Should he give you a little taste, Laura, or do you want the whole show right now?" Her hand was rubbing back and forth on Laura's thigh, though Laura gave no evidence she was paying any attention.

For a split second, Roslin's eyes were overcome with grief, but she seemed to intentionally push it aside, and smiled at Kara. "Honestly, young lady, have you never been to the theater? One never starts the show with the climax."

"I love planes and pyramid, Laura. Not many opportunities for theater outings on a battlestar."

Laura sat up a little straighter, taking on an air of teacher scolding a student, which Kara would admit, if only to herself, was kind of a turn-on.

"A theater production is not wham, bam, thank you ma'am. It's a game, a performance. The audience is seduced into the story with each scene, until they're so far in they _have_ to know what's coming." She gave a prim smile that belied the emphasis she'd carefully placed on certain words.

Kara raised to her knees and moved a little closer to Helo. "Well, big guy, the audience has requested a small demonstration. Show her what you can do with your tongue."

Helo's eyebrows raised as understanding kicked in. He side-eyed Laura and said to Kara, "If there's going to be more to this performance, you have to behave. No biting. Yet."

~*~*~*~*~*~

They both heard the gasp, and Kara's lips curved just before their mouths met. He knew Kara preferred it quick and dirty, so he took his time. Putting on a show was fine, but getting Kara worked up to impatience was fun, and he knew she'd let him this time.

He nipped at her lips, sucking softly, licking at the corners, and he waited for Kara's soft growl before he kissed her full on. Even so, he kept the tongue to a minimum, rolling his around hers in a tease, and when he sensed Kara was about to take over, he pulled back.

He looked at Laura, whose eyes were slightly glazed, and exchanged nods with Kara.

"How was that, Laura?"

"It was adequate." She sounded disappointed.

"Adequate?" Kara echoed.

"It was difficult to see everything, so I believe a more personal demonstration will be required."

Well damn. The Agathon Ambrosia was kicking Laura Roslin hard. Kara exchanged looks with Helo, hers asking _You ready for this?_ , and him shrugging, _I knew what you were asking for when I showed up, Kara._

Out loud, Helo only said, "Of course, Laura." And to give her a sense of safety, he added, "Before I start, you should tell me what boundaries there are."

She nodded, as if that made perfect sense, and replied, "For now, what you did with Kara, only with me. I believe feeling rather than seeing it will be the key."

She smiled at him, and her eyes as she looked over at Kara were sharper than he expected them to be at this point, but he pushed it aside and kissed Laura Roslin. As with Kara, he started slow, but this time it was because he needed to feel her out, figure out what things turned her on and what things did nothing for her. This was just the first step, but the ultimate goal was to have her losing herself in climax, so he needed to learn on the fly. A guy had to pay attention if he really wanted to seduce a woman.

So he kissed her, light and sweet, harder and rougher, tongue delicately exploring her mouth, and lips sliding along hers until she clutched at his shoulder and whimpered. That was his cue to draw back, to slow things down again.

He softened the kiss and pulled away, trailing fingers along her arm in a show of reluctance.

Laura sat there, chest heaving for a few moments, then she took a slow, deliberate breath and nodded at Kara. "Yes. well-earned, I agree."

Kara and Karl exchanged mental high-fives and then looked back at Laura in shock as she said, "That was the prologue. The first act requires far fewer clothes, so we'll take a brief intermission."

Kara clicked her mouth shut and started shucking clothes. Karl was a little slower to follow, but he also had fewer clothes to remove. He stood there in his boxer briefs, politely keeping his gaze away from Laura Roslin, until she cursed under her breath and reached out to him.

"I seem to have lost some coordination, Karl. It must be the atmosphere on Kobol. If you would be so kind as to assist me?"

Karl knew very well it wasn't the frakkin' Kobolian atmosphere, but he had been raised a gentleman, so he quietly agreed with her, applying himself to the tiny buttons on her blouse. By the time he'd helped Laura step out of her pants, Kara had one hand running her dog tags back and forth over her naked breasts, and the other hand locked around the neck of the ambrosia bottle.

Laura turned to drop her clothing in a corner of a tent and then stood there, uncertainty in her expression.

Karl didn't know what to do, but as always, Kara bulldozed right over the awkwardness. "You wanna keep your bra on, Laura?" She raised a finger and traced the edges of the cups from one shoulder to the other.

Laura stiffened almost imperceptibly, then nodded. "Yes. I think I'll keep it on for now."

Kara nodded, as if she'd expected exactly that answer, and upended the bottle for a small sip. She lifted her face to Karl, and she passed ambrosia to him with the kiss. She turned back to Laura.

"Are we ready for the first act, Laura?"

Laura didn't even hesitate. "Touch her, Karl. Tell me how she feels."

Karl reached out, a single finger brushing down the surface of Kara's left breast. "Soft. Kind of shivery."

"Mmm," she nodded. She held a hand out to Kara. "May I, Kara? Perhaps some audience participation would be permissible?"

Kara didn't even blink. "Of course."

Karl had cupped Kara's breast in his fingers, mostly just sliding over her skin, not going anywhere with it yet. Laura's hand approached, tracing up and down Kara's skin, making circles around her nipple, and when Karl looked at Kara, she was biting her lip.

"You are soft. The tiny hairs tickle my palm." She stepped back. "Show me more, Karl."

Karl stood there for a moment, unsure what to do. He could count the number of times Kara had let him go slow with her on one finger. He caught her eyes and tilted his head, asking for help.

Kara lifted a brow, carefully set the ambrosia on the floor of the tent, and stepped over in front of Laura. She glanced over her shoulder. "Come on, Karl. Show her more."

There wasn't much room between Kara and Laura, so when his hands landed on Kara's waist and she guided them upward, the backs of his fingers grazed the cups of Laura's bra. Kara leaned back into him, put her hands over his, and this time, it was her hands touching Laura. Once Kara had showed him what to do, she let his hands go, and put her own hands on Laura's waist. She was gentle, barely touching Laura's skin, and still, he could see the effect she was having on Laura.

Kara moved her hands, following the angles and curves of Laura's body, up her ribs, down her back, resting her hands on Laura's ass, then pulling them closer together. She tilted her head back onto Karl's shoulder and nuzzled his jaw. He turned to her and they kissed for a moment. She broke away and whispered, "Kiss her, too." She jerked her head a little and leaned forward, brushing her lips over Laura's, then outlined the contours of Laura's face with her nose, her lips, her cheek.

Karl tried to follow along, not doing the same thing at the same time, but paying attention, like he'd been trained to do. He noticed when his lips touched her neck below her ear, she made a quiet, plaintive sound, and he let his fingers keep contact while he moved around behind her so he could reach that spot better.

Even though everything was working in slow motion, Laura was becoming more aroused. He could feel the vibration under her skin, could make out the odor, similar to but not the same as, Kara's when she was horny.

He pushed a hand forward, around her hip, across her belly, running a fingernail back and forth over the top edge of her panties. As soon as he put a finger under the elastic, though, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist to stop him.

He adjusted his stance and put his mouth next to her ear. "I do something wrong, Laura?"

She shook her head, but her voice was shaky when she spoke. "You hold me. Wrap your arms around me and hold me."

She reached forward, massaging Kara's breasts, tweaking her nipples, then she held Kara's hand in place, edging it down under her panties. Laura said, "You touch me."

He didn't know exactly what Kara was doing, but he could feel the effects. Laura's knees gave out more than once. She trembled and moaned low in her throat. Her hips shifted restlessly.

Then, barely even a sound, "Yes. Gods. Right there. Please don't -" Whatever she'd been about to say flattened out into a breathy whine as her body shook and her skin goosebumped and she slumped into Karl.

He waited a few moments, his own heart still pumping, his erection pressing far too intimately into Laura Roslin's ass.

She seemed to pull herself together, shaking her hair back behind her shoulders and stepping away from him. She walked to the corner where she'd dropped her clothes, and came back, wiping her eyes. When she was fully armored again, she looked at them both.

"You were right. I needed that after today." She walked to Kara and kissed her chastely, then turned to Karl and put her hand on his chest, before stepping away to sit on the bedroll Kara had set up for her earlier. "Tomorrow, I'll wake up and I'll be the President again, and I won't feel like a body made up of millions of shards of glass, ready to burst apart at any moment."

She continued, "In the morning, we will tell whoever asks the truth: You fulfilled your obligation to stand watch as the President grieved in private."

Karl nodded, saw out of the corner of his eye when Kara did, too.

"Right now, though, intermission is about to end, and we're returning for the final act of the show. I believe the remainder of the show can proceed without audience participation?"

When Kara and Karl both looked at her like she'd been speaking a foreign language, Laura sighed loudly and said, "Maybe you don't need it as badly as I did, but you do need it. Take care of it, right here, right now."

Karl looked at Kara, one brow quirked. Kara shrugged.

Laura clapped her hands together once. "I'm exhausted. Get to it."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara groaned as she rushed Karl. She pushed up with one foot, and he caught her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him, soft and teasing, completely at odds with the frantic movements of her hips and hands.

He pulled his lips away, whispering, "Down?"

Kara nodded and unwrapped herself from around him. She carelessly rolled out the extra bedroll he'd brought with the ambrosia and tugged her panties far enough down they fell the rest of the way on their own. She settled to the ground, and to Karl's surprise, rolled to her back. When he knelt at her side and she pushed him down, it made more sense. He kissed his way down her stomach and pushed her knees apart.

Kara was already on the edge, so bringing her off took even less time than usual. As he settled on top of her, she grasped at his biceps and said, "Gods, Karl, frak me already!"

He heard a giggle from the President's bedroll, and he smiled and said, "Yes, sir," as he pushed into Kara.

When she shuddered her way through another orgasm, bringing his own climax, he slumped onto Kara. She let him rest for a few moments, then put her hands on his face. He pretended not to see the tears or hear the quaver in her voice when she said, "I love you, you know. I'm glad you're alive."

He stared at her, and she squirmed under him, shoving him off. "What? Frak, Helo. You never know when's the last time you're gonna see someone. I decided it wouldn't kill me to say it while you're still around to hear it. Now put your godsdamn clothes back on so I can use you as a pillow."

He couldn't swear to it, but he thought he heard a snicker from the President.


End file.
